Tinkling across the tarmac on summer afternoons, “Greensleeves” has been luring British children to ice cream vans since 1958. The olde folk song in its melancholy minor key was an odd choice of jingle for the UK’s first fleet of Mr Whippy ice cream vans. But the company’s British-born founder, Dominic Facchino, turns out to have been a big fan of Henry VIII, so topped his Mr Whippy character with a floppy Tudor hat and supplied his vendors with wind-up music boxes of an 18-note melody widely believed to have been written by Henry for his second wife, Anne Boleyn.
Alas, though Henry VIII was a gifted musician, it is unlikely that the king (who died in 1547) wrote a song whose lyrics were first registered by London Printer Richard Jones as “A New Northern Dittye of the Lady Greene Sleeves” in 1580. It’s possible that the melody has changed over time, but the version we know today is written in the Spanish romanesca style which didn’t reach England until after Henry’s death. The tune rises and falls with the hopes of a lover “discourteously” rejected by a woman for whom he has “waged both life and land”.
There’s a theory that the object of the singer’s affection is either promiscuous or a prostitute: her sleeves are green from rolling in the grass. But green was also symbolic of growing love or unmarried young women in songs of the time. Whatever the meaning, the song was clearly well known by the time Shakespeare wrote The Merry Wives of Windsor in 1597 — during which Falstaff exclaims: “Let the sky rain potatoes! Let it thunder to the tune of ‘Greensleeves’!” — and remains in the mainstream more than 400 years later.
The song was drafted as a military march by the cavaliers in the English Civil War and the homesick tommies in the first world war. Its innate Englishness appealed to Ralph Vaughan Williams, who worked it into the third act of his 1928 Shakespeare-inspired opera Sir John in Love, rearranged in 1934 by Ralph Greaves as the popular classic Fantasia on Greensleeves.
Perhaps it was the tune’s sheer age and cosy nostalgia value that eventually saw it hitched to Christmas. In 1865 it was refitted as the Christmas carol, “What Child Is This?”, with lyrics by Bristol poet William Chatterton Dix. In this form it has been served — sweet’n’gloopy as eggnog — by a holy host of sentimental crooners: Johnny Mathis(1958), Andy Williams (1974) and Glen Campbell(1993). In 1968 Frank Sinatra kept the festive theme but opted for more secular lyrics when singing it with kids Nancy, Tina and Frank Jnr as “The Bells of Christmas”.
The carol has had edgier treatment in the noughties, attracting the attention of alternative singer/songwriters like Sufjan Stevens(2002), Tori Amos(2009) and Red House Painters’ Mark Kozelek(2014), whose thoughtful growl rescues it from nylon-stringed tweeness.
The folk revival which peaked in the 1960s found many earnest troubadours harking back to the antique language of the original, but more audacious performers added a modern rock twist. Marianne Faithfull added tense strings and drums on the B-side of her 1964 hit, “As Tears Go By”.Leonard Cohen sexed up the lyrics on 1974’s “Leaving Green Sleeves”.
Hollywood picked up on “Greensleeves”’ revived hipness and recast it as “A Home in the Meadow”in the 1962 MGM epic, How the West Was Won, where Debbie Reynolds' winsome delivery prompts a proposal from Gregory Peck. Elvis swaggered it out as “Stay Away”for his 1968 comedy-Western Stay Away, Joe.
Jazz has treated it with more class. Oscar Petersongave it some surprisingly urban sophistication in 1970 but John Coltrane’s 1961 versionis the standout as his soprano sax sketches depth, confusion and mystery around the familiar theme.
Alas, the circular simplicity that ensures the “Greensleeves”’ longevity also makes it one of the world’s most maddening earworms. A 2001 poll commissioned by Stressbusting magazine saw it voted the most annoying song played to callers on hold. “When Greensleeves comes on the line, yet again,” said editor Peter Freedman, “I feel like smashing the phone with a pickaxe.”
We are keen to hear from our readers. Which is your favourite version of “Greensleeves”? Do you agree that it’s a maddening earworm? Let us know in the comments below.
Music credits: Sono Luminus, Chandos, Cayo Records, Columbia/Legacy, New Haven Records, UMC (Universal Music Catalogue), Asthmatic Kitty, Universal-Island Records Ltd., Caldo Verde Records, ABKCO Music & Records, Inc., Columbia/Legacy, Hifi Hits, SBME Strategic Marketing Group, MPS, Decca (UMO).
Picture: Time Life Pictures/Mansell/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images